Video: Chrysler ad a stealth Obama promotion?; Update: Video restored

posted at 3:40 pm on February 6, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

Did Chrysler buy two minutes of the most expensive television time possible to air a stealth promotion for Barack Obama? Clint Eastwood narrates and appears in Chrysler’s spot, in which he declares that we have reached “halftime in America,” which seems to hint at a two-term Presidency for Obama:

“It’s halftime. Both teams are in their locker rooms discussing what they can do to win this game in the second half. It’s halftime in America, too.” Eastwood says. “People are out of work and they’re hurting. And they’re all wondering what they’re gonna do to make a comeback.”

Pointing to improvement in the auto industry as a positive sign, the “Dirty Harry” star goes on, “Detroit’s showing us it can be done. …This country can’t be knocked out with one punch. We get right back up again and when we do, the world is going to hear the roar of our engines.”

Though the commercial didn’t mention any politicians by name, Twitter quickly lit up with speculation: Was Eastwood giving props to President Obama for bailing out the auto industry? And was the ad a veiled endorsement of his re-election?

David Axelrod, a top campaign adviser to Obama, seemed quick to interpret it that way, calling the ad a “powerful spot.”

“I was, frankly, offended by it,” said Karl Rove on Fox News Monday. “I’m a huge fan of Clint Eastwood, I thought it was an extremely well-done ad, but it is a sign of what happens when you have Chicago-style politics, and the president of the United States and his political minions are, in essence, using our tax dollars to buy corporate advertising.”

But the halftime Chrysler commercial starring Clint Eastwood, describing America as being in its own “halftime,” was just overtly politicized. After all, what else could “halftime” have meant, in the year 2012, than halfway through the eight years Barack Obama would be president if re-elected this fall? I’m fairly certain it wasn’t a prediction that the country will break up circa 2248 A.D.

Chrysler of course has a right to political speech. But it would be nice if the company wouldn’t be so brazen about its leanings while still owing the entire country — left, right and center — billions of dollars.

Chrysler denies having a political motive in mind, presumably other than making the argument for the bailout, which the ad does very clearly if not quite explicitly. Their CEO laughably asks that “it doesn’t get utilized in as political fodder in a debate” after spending millions of dollars during the Super Bowl proclaiming the wisdom of the bailout. Maybe if Chrysler had stuck to promoting its latest models rather than complaining about Americans debating over policy and then declaring America in its “halftime,” Sergio Marchionne wouldn’t have to hope that his car company would get excused from political debates in the future. Sounds like the same kind of whining that led to the bailout in the first place.

“I’ve always been very liberal when it comes to people thinking for themselves,” said Eastwood, who supports gay marriage, abortion rights and environmental protection. “But I’m a big hawk on cutting the deficit. I was against the stimulus thing too. We shouldn’t be bailing out the banks and car companies. If a CEO can’t figure out how to make his company profitable, then he shouldn’t be the CEO.”

Well, Clint, I hope the paycheck from the endorsement made your day, and, er … hope it clears, too. Sounds as though Eastwood switched teams at his halftime.

Update (Ed): YouTube pulled the ad after Chrysler claimed its posting violated its copyright. I got the new code from Politico, which seems to have a little more testicular fortitude than YouTube and its parent, Google.

I was shocked someone like Eastwood would lend his name to this shilling for Obama. But, what was worse was when he called GM “American.” Sorry, but governments that own the means of production is a fascist or socialist idea, not an American one.

Yeah, i really don’t see how it could be taken as anything but an ad for Obama, the halftime reference, talking about pulling together with taxpayer money like good lil’ collectevists, references to protestors blocking the way when the only protestors around these days are Tea Partiers etc. Shame that Eastwood decided to sell out after at least hinting for a while now that he was a conservative, guess he wants some more Oscars.

Maybe if Chrysler had stuck to promoting its latest models rather than complaining about Americans debating over policy and then declaring America in its “halftime,” Sergio Marchionne wouldn’t have to hope that his car company would get excused from political debates in the future. Sounds like the same kind of whining that led to the bailout in the first place.

“But I’m a big hawk on cutting the deficit. I was against the stimulus thing too. We shouldn’t be bailing out the banks and car companies. If a CEO can’t figure out how to make his company profitable, then he shouldn’t be the CEO.”

What has happened to Clint’s voice? Did they torture him to get him to do the ad?

Clint must be suffering from Dementia or Alzheimers, since the apparent theme of that ad doesn’t reflect anything he has publicly stated about this subject. Regardless, I will never purchase a Chrysler or GM product again.

what bothered me most was that it made an explicitly emotional appeal. Eastwood didn’t use facts to back up his case–he relied on sun rises, group photos, and dramatic monologue to try and bend our hearts toward his side. that is not how we should discuss the future of our country. It’s the same vacuous rhetorical style as 0bama.

Perhaps I wasn’t watching it close enough during the game, but, I liked the commercial.

I thought it was a patriotic pep-talk, “we’re down, but not out” sort of thing. It made me think of the “morning in America” commercials.

“Halftime” to me didn’t sound like it was referring to the middle of two Obama terms. It seemed like it was just drawing an allusion from the game to our current state so they could give us a half-time pep-talk.

Perhaps I wasn’t watching it closely enough. But, isn’t it at all possible that we’re so plugged into politics that we start seeing it everywhere?

The ad focuses on Detroit juxtaposed with America, we’ve been knocked down, yet the fight isn’t over. It’s a great ad. It’s pure Americana. It has nothing to do with Obama’s campaign, it’s silly to suggest so, and misses the point.

“But…hey, wait a second, what is the point then?”

“To uh…er, buy a car.”

“Isn’t purchasing a car going to give the average American more debt and…”

Oh, come one. Anyone who thinks that the reference to “halftime” is an allusion to an Obama two-term presidency is participating in Obama’s egomania. Not everything is about him!

The ad aired during halftime of the Super Bowl and the allusion to America’s halftime is more about America in its middle years, no longer the new republic, but hardly the empire in decay. That makes much more sense than an Obama 2-termer.

But don’t get me wrong. It was a stupid ad that was only made passable with the appearance of Clint Eastwood.

Anyone wanting to extract any political meaning or longer-term effect from this sorry ad is wasting their time. This ad is about as effective as the Bloomberg ad.

Honestly the only memorable ad last night was the Doritos ad.

People need to lighten and keep the focus on beating Obama in November!

Of course, if you listen to the ad, Eastwood says America has “taken a punch” and has been knocked down. He could be suggesting that America took the punch from Obama, and now it’s time to fight back. After all, who’s had a good first-half, with Obamacare and such?

Clint’s a clever old fella. I think there’s more to the subtext he’s putting forth here.

I took the ad as a warning to America to kick Uhhhhbama out before he does even more damage, until I saw the sponsor. Yep, call me naive, that some Republican would have the nerve to call out the damage our govt has done; but we, as Americans, can undo the damage if govt would just get out of the way.

Oh that stupid thing… All I wondered from it was whether Eastwood was bought or played for a sucker. A sad day for a legend either way.

Only good thing I can say about it is Kyle Wingfield’s analysis above. I’m glad to know I’m not the only one enough of a nerd to have bothered doing the math to determine the 23rd century collapse of the USA.

I don’t see the ‘half-time’ reference as anything having to do with Obama’s term, especially since the bailouts started under Bush. It seemed to me to be just an overwrought ‘thanks for the bailout’ by Chrysler.

The commercial was awful.
Clint was implying that America pulled together to save Chrysler lke we all were screaming “Yaaayyy!!!! for bailouts”.
He never mentioned the part about stealing it from the secured investors.

One of my most hated phrases “put politics aside for America”, politics is free speech and standing up for what you believe in, politics is everything this country is about. If you want to put politics aside move to North Korea.

Okay, El Presidente Downgrade has been proven time and again to be incompetent – so would you agree for the good of the country that we need to put an end to the error of the Downgrade Administration and have some real Positive change.

Clint must be suffering from Dementia or Alzheimers, since the apparent theme of that ad doesn’t reflect anything he has publicly stated about this subject. Regardless, I will never purchase a Chrysler or GM product again.

lhuffman34 on February 6, 2012 at 3:52 PM

Tim_CA, do you want to take this one? Seriously, everytime someone older does something you disagree with, please stop saying they have dementia or Alzheimer’s. I prefer to think he was tortured.

Of all Americans over the age of 65, one out of every eight have Alzheimer’s.

Seems to me some people want a bad economy for political gain. I could be wrong but that’s the impression I get reading some of these responses

liberal4life on February 6, 2012 at 3:50 PM

The economy would be better without bailouts. Had those companies failed, it would also mean an end to an unsustainable business model and other, better companies–those not practicing that failed business model–would succeed. As it is, those bailed-out companies will, in all likelihood, fail again, with thousands or millions more unemployed. In addition, car company shareholders were not bailed out, the unions were.

And let’s get another thing straight: no conservative wants economic disaster and hardship for millions whomever is occupying the Oval Office. No conservative wants a president of either party to be a feckless incompetent. No conservative wants a terrorist attack or an unnecessary war for the sake of political point-scoring. That would be you.

Okay, El Presidente Downgrade has been proven time and again to be incompetent – so would you agree for the good of the country that we need to put an end to the error of the Downgrade Administration and have some real Positive change.

unemployment has dropped below 8.8
Question for you, Do you agree with Romney when it comes to how the car companies were bailed out?

liberal4life on February 6, 2012 at 3:59 PM

Head over to townhall and read the lead article about the unemployment number and how the BLS is fiddling with the number. I would, honestly, like to hear your opinion of it. The portion of the article is highlighted–what the BLS is considering.

David Axelrod, a top campaign adviser to Obama, seemed quick to interpret it that way, calling the ad a “powerful spot.”

That settles it for me…

… Pure coincidence. No hidden political message at all. Nope! Nothing. Just a patriotic ad meant to lift America’s spirits. Yeap, didn’t even know it was an election year either. I’m glad we got this settled.

unemployment has dropped below 8.8
Question for you, Do you agree with Romney when it comes to how the car companies were bailed out?

liberal4life on February 6, 2012 at 3:59 PM

No shiite? Because that would be news to the 30+ million unemployed Americans out there. Or were you only counting the people that are no longer included in the spreadsheets?

As for Romney, he isn’t POTUS, Obama is. Question for you: What do you think of the spending Obama’s added, the wars he’s started and run, his failure to close Gitmo, his ignoring of Congress, all the things he hasn’t done that he promised to do while being…well…while being POTUS?

Some idiot from my city called into to Rush’s show today to take Mark Steyn to task for supposedly playing ‘word games’ when Steyn was trying to explain the fact that Chrysler is 58+% Italian and provides jobs to a lot of Canadians, asking just how American that was.

Detroit is NOT fighting again. It’s getting worse. It recently averted — by a whisker — the State’s Governor being forced to name an emergency manager because the city was about to go bankrupt. This still might happen.

I remember last summer seeing a huge headline on Drudge where Detroit officials were warning that there would be rolling blackouts. I recall thinking, “If there’s a blackout in Detroit, besides the cattle grazing downtown, how would anyone know?”

So Eastwood was against the auto company bailouts until he was offered some bailout money to do a commercial. Typical Hollywood hypocrit. I wonder what sort of trophy he will get in exchange for his soul?